Alternative Perspective
 Issue 11, December 4th, 2002
 Compiled byMadhukar Shukla

Introduction: Alternative Perspective is an attempt to widen our awareness about issues related to business, environment, role and influence of media, geo-politics, culture, etc. It aims to share, on a regular basis, some of those pieces of news and information, which do not find place in the highly monopolised mainstream media. Please feel free to share/ forward/ distribute this newsletter to others who may be interested.



Note: The URLs of sources used in the text are numbered and given at the end of the Newsletter.

In This Issue:
  • The Fallacy of Shareholder Returns
     If one thinks rationally, there is something ironical - and perverse - in a business model which aims to maximise returns to shareholder (who doesn't produce anything), while treating employee (the guy who produces) as costs. Contrary to popular understanding (that shareholder invests his money and takes risks), 99% shareholders merely trade and speculate on shares; it is, as this article points out, like the second-handcar market - when you sell or buy a second-hand car, you are not investing anything in the company. The implications, naturally, are wide - ranging from "who is the real stakeholder" to free-market as a viable model for achieving economic efficiencies.
    http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/fall2000/fe_fall2000stockmyth.html

  • Ghana: Prisoner of IMF
    About twenty years back, Ghana was a fledgling, but more or less self-sufficient, developing economy - and then it took loan from IMF/World Bank. Over time, it has joined the ranks of other HIPCs (Highly Indebted Poor Countries). Under conditions of abolition of subsidies and privatisation, Ghanians pay for water, health services, etc.... and eat American rice. Reason: IMF conditions to Ghana (and to all other creditor countries) stipulate abolishing farm subsidies, while developed nations - European countries and US are free to subsidise agriculture[1]!!!!
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/from_our_own_correspondent/1634514.stm

  • The Cancer and the Capitalism
    The parallels are striking!!! - Cancer cells grow in unregulated and uncontrolled manner (free trade); are not not native to any part of the host organism (money and business moves where it finds a sucker - OK, low cost economies); suck up the nutirients from the part of the host where they attach to (exploit resources), weaken the immune system (demolish communities, public services, environment, etc.), etc... This article by John McMurtry shows this parallels - and that this way of looking at the present form of capitalism is not just a rhetoric or a metaphor... If you find it interesting, look up this other article by McMrurty on Economics of Life and Death[2] as well.
    http://infoweb.magi.com/~ccpa/articles/article58.html

  • Local Alternatives in a Global World
    So, in a globalised world - where small is no longer considered beautiful, and the "big is subsidised" - are there alternatives for a viable localised economy? This article analyses the issue, and also shows how localised community markets are not only proving to be economically more efficient, but also are more sustainable and eco- and community-friendly options to balance the international trade.... In fact, in a very different context - and more by default than by design - here is another local alternative to ownership of production, as this workers' cooperative takes over the factory in Argentina[3], while the foreign owners move the money and leave the country.
    http://www.urban75.com/Action/seattle7.html

  • The Ultimate Bubble to Burst?
    The Economist World Survey Report, published yesterday, on US economy - an economy based on principles of "shareholders return"!!!
    http://www.economist.com/surveys/displayStory.cfm?Story_id=1336202


    Other Sources Quoted in the Newsletter:
    [1]: http://www.ewg.org/farm/regiondetail.php?fips=00000&summlevel=1
    [2]: http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Econ/EconMcMu.htm
    [3]: http://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=4930


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